


Six of Coins

by orphan_account



Series: The Cards of Marseilles [2]
Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Genre: Childermass thinks it's funny, M/M, Segundus is exasperated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 06:51:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4656846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(gift fic for weconqueratdawn who prompted "Childermass teaching Segundus to read the cards of Marseille" on the kinkmeme, and birdbelles who requested the same as a sequel to L'Amoureux, though this can be read as a stand-alone story) </p><p>"You asked me to teach you how to read the cards of Marseilles, and that is what I am doing." Childermass tapped the card. "Look at it, Mr Segundus, what does it tell you?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six of Coins

"I can't read these when you're laughing at me."

Childermass pressed his knuckles to his lips, barely hiding the grin that threatened. "Not laughing," He lied, chuckling again. "You're overthinking this."

John Segundus sighed, deflating visibly as he pressed his fingers to his temples. "How is it that you can glean such specific meanings from these cards? It all looks like--like nonsense to me!" He blushed, and worried his bottom lip with his teeth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like--"

Childermass picked up a card, the six of coins, and held it up, "When you look at this, what do you think? What do the coins make you think of?"

"Money." John said, and pursed his lips when Childermass nodded, "But that's only because you told me the coins suit meant wealth and prosperity and material things."

"Aye, they do." Childermass set the card back down. "And the six of coins would mean?"

John threw his hands up with a sigh. "I have no idea!"

"You asked me to teach you how to read the cards of Marseilles, and that is what I am doing." Childermass tapped the card. "Look at it, Mr Segundus, what does it tell you?"

John frowned, muttering, "I told you not to call me  _Mr Segundus_  anymore, John Childermass," but leaned forward again to stare at it. "How can you even tell if it's reversed, its symmetrical!"

"Read the card,  _John_."

"It looks like the coins are being protected? By these vines?" John glanced up at Childermass, looking for some sign that he was right.

"Go on."

"It reminds me of a flower blooming. When the outer petals open and you can see the inner parts, the stamen and pistels." John continued, still unsure of himself. "But what does have to do with money?"

Childermass chuckled again, quickly biting it off as John's expression turned more sour. "You are thinking too small, but you're on the right path. What does a gardner expect of their garden, hm? For the flowers to stay closed forever despite all the hard work?"

John closed his eyes for a moment, and then, as if someone had lit a candle inside of him, he snatched up the card. "Reward!" He cried, holding the card out to Childermass. "The six of coins, it means a reward for something, am I right?"

"That is one way to read it, yes."

John's shoulders sagged. "Just one?"  
  
Childermass pointed to the second card. "You haven't finished the story. What does the six of coins have to do with the ace of batons then?"

"I'm going to bludgeon someone over the head and take their money."

Childermass laughed, leaning back in his chair. Even John couldn't hold back the smile that escaped him, so rare was it that Childermass truly  _laughed_ at anything, deep and loud like this. "Now  _that_ I would like to see." He said, "Again, look at the card. You see the hand holding the baton upright, what does it remind you of?"

"Someone holding a sword, perhaps?" John asked, "And these markings, like flames? Or are they leaves, they could be leaves, these are  _sticks_ after all."  
  
"Instinct, John." Childermass said, giving him a more serious look now. "What is your first impression?"

John studied the card, feeling quite foolish. He was taking entirely too long, by his own accounts, to read the cards. He was certain he would never master them, and that this whole venture would be a waste of time. "Leaves, not flames. They are not attached to the stick-- _baton_ ," He corrected himself, "but they are not falling. They are rising, growing perhaps?" He sighed deeply, "They barely look like leaves."

"But  _you_ have said that they  _are_ leaves."

"Yes well, I could be wrong, you won't tell me one way or another until I have made a complete fool of myself." John snapped, crossing his arms over his chest and no longer looking at the cards, he chose instead to meet Childermass' eyes. "Growing leaves on a dead stick and a reward. It doesn't make sense at all, sir. What, am I going to grow a reward out of thin air?"

Childermass quirked an eyebrow. John rolled his eyes in a manner entirely unlike himself.

"You are joking, sir."

"There are seven more cards in the spread,  _read them_."

"This is ridiculous." John said. "I do not have your gift!" He looked down at the cards all the same. "Alright here, the page of cups, right? Well he looks like he's had a little too much to drink. And here's the eight of swords, they don't even look like swords here, I couldn't even tell by looking at it what it was unless you had told me.  _Temperance_ which I know to mean  _patience_ but it looks like she's bloody knackered herself, pouring another cup maybe for that fellow two cards back? La lune," He tapped the card, "Reversed, the whole world is upside down now because we are all drunk and falling over one another! I am terrible at this Childermass, please do not make me continue!"  
  
Childermass' expression was unreadable. "Continue." He said, softly, but there was no room for argument.   
  
John made a frustrated noise. "Fine. The ace of swords, there's a hand, a crown, more of those leaves that are  _not_ leaves." John stopped, quiet for a moment as he looked down at the card. Childermass leaned forward. "No, not leaves, not this time. It's light? Yes, and its coming from the sword."   
  
"A breakthrough, a moment of clarity--"

"Hush!" John said, holding up his hand. "The two of batons, the vines are growing out of the center of the crossed batons. But L'Empereur?" He rubbed his thumb over the corner of the card. "There's a smudge here."

Childermass sucked in a breath between his teeth. "Read the cards, Mr Segundus." He said, so quietly it was almost a whisper.  
    
"Looks like there was a bird printed on the back of this paper." John said absently, as if to himself. "L'Empereur, the emperor? Maybe a king?" He sighed. "I thought I was on to something with those last two cards, but I've lost it, if I even  _had_ it to begin with. What does any of this have to do with an emperor, or a king, or any kind of monarch? And further, what does this have to do with  _me_. I told you Childermass, I can not read the cards."

"You just did." Childermass moved the cards, positioning them once more into a straight line of nine. "The last time you told me you couldn't do something, you then reattached a severed finger and rescued a lady from a fairy's enchantment, John Segundus. Read the cards, from the beginning."  
  
So John Segundus read the cards.  
  
He touched each card carefully, fingers resting lightly on the old paper. The six of coins, ace of batons, page of cups, eight of swords, temperance, la lune reversed, ace of swords, two of batons, l'empereur.  
  
The candle's flame that had lit within him reached out as if it had a hand, and became a bonfire. John finally  _saw_ the cards.

"What does the six of coins have to do with the ace of wands." John murmured, pushing the two cards together. "Not a reward, answers. I have been waiting for something, for answers to just make themselves known to me, but that's not how the story goes. I have to find the answers myself. The page of cups, not a drunkard, or maybe. But what is a page? They bring messages, there is a message for someone. The eight of swords, they are all twisted, I can not read the message yet but the answer to that is right in front of me, I just need patience." He touched the Temperance card again, before moving on. "La Lune, the moon, its reversed its--" He paused, nearly losing his train of thought. "The world is upside down, the moon is on the ground and the earth is in the sky, this doesn't make a bit of sense, but the ace of swords, the sword, the crown-- _Childermass_!" He grabbed the other man's hand, looking at him in wide-eyed amazement. "Its about the King's Letters! We are trying to read them the wrong way!"

"Then how should we read them?"

"I do not know." John said, as he drummed his fingers on the table. "But we need to look at them from a different angle entirely. Then we will see and--" He tapped the two of batons, L'Empereur. "Then we will be able to read them, and see what he has to tell us."

Childermass was quiet for some time, staring at John as if searching for something. Finally, he nodded. "That is indeed what the cards say."

John smiled, feeling rather pleased with himself. 


End file.
